


Punch

by Emily_Sheryn



Category: Dynasty (TV 2017)
Genre: Family, M/M, Minor Violence, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:15:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23898115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emily_Sheryn/pseuds/Emily_Sheryn
Summary: Prequel to "Home." Steven returns and the truth about Adam is revealed.
Relationships: Steven Carrington/Sam "Sammy Jo" Jones
Comments: 18
Kudos: 50





	Punch

"So, the flight was good? We would have sent the jet for you, if we'd known you were coming."

Steven gave his father an exasperated look. He halfheartedly poked at the salad in front of him with a fork. Anders had insisted on having Mrs. Gunnerson bring him dinner, even though he'd said that he wasn't hungry. 

"Dad, this is Steven, remember? _Carbon footprint_." Fallon smiled at him supportively. 

"Exactly. There's no need to damage the environment any further just so we can have a family reunion."

Blake sighed heavily, picking up a knife and trimming off a piece of steak. 

"We're just glad to have you home," Cristal said gently. " _How_ you got here isn't important."

Steven took a sip of water and cleared his throat. "Um, there's actually something that I really need to tell you all. It's about Adam."

Fallon's eyebrows went up, instantly suspicious. "What about him?"

Cristal put her glass down, her face hardening into a frown. 

Blake looked up from his plate, dabbing at his mouth with a napkin. "I knew you'd be looking forward to meeting your brother, so I already had Anders call and tell him to come over."

"Oh no, Dad. I really wish you hadn't done that." Steven got up from the table, immediately panicked. He had been back in Atlanta for barely an hour and he was already regretting his decision to come home. The only thing he wanted was to see Sam, but he hadn't been able to reach him.

"Don't worry. I told him to keep it a secret that you're here. He's going to be so surprised to see you."

Fallon went to Steven and put a hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong? If this is too much for you, then we don't need to have him come over right now."

"I just need to talk to Sam," Steven said, swallowing back a lump in his throat. He tried to breath and stay calm. She was right that it was all more than he could handle, especially seeing Adam again. For so long he hadn't trusted his own memories. He'd thought the moment when George told him he was Adam had just been another one of his delusions. 

"Ok, we'll go to the hotel. I'm sure he's there." Fallon grabbed her purse and a jacket.

Steven wasn't sure why Sam would be at a hotel, but figuring that out wasn't his top priority. He just wanted to see him again and share everything that he'd been going through. It would be a relief to finally be able to tell him the truth about what had happened in Paris with "George."

"I don't understand what the problem is," Blake said, setting down his fork. "Why wouldn't you want to meet Adam? He's your brother."

"Because I've already met him!" Steven blurted out angrily. He was glad to have it out in the open. The months he'd spent dealing with it alone had been miserable.

Fallon rubbed his arm soothingly, a look of deep concern on her face. "That's not possible. You've been in France and Adam's been here. Maybe you just need to rest."

"No! I've done enough resting!" Steven was growing frustrated. It had taken months of hard work in therapy before he could face coming home, but now it seemed like it had been for nothing. He could tell by the looks on their faces that they still thought he was crazy. "Adam was in France. He gaslighted me, made me think I was losing it..."

Cristal stood up from the table and walked over to him. "I believe you. Start at the beginning and tell us everything he did."

Steven barely knew this woman, but he wanted to hug her. At least there was one person in his family who hadn't fallen for Adam's manipulations. He felt a weight lift from his shoulders as he began to tell them the whole sordid story.

**

"We'll take the car to the hotel. Dad and Cristal can stay here and deal with Adam," Fallon said, a hard edge in her voice. Hearing the details of what had happened in France had made her furious. They were standing in the foyer with their coats on, getting ready to leave. 

"Deal with? I don't want him to be killed." Steven hated Adam more than he'd ever hated anyone, but he had to draw the line at murder.

Fallon shrugged. "I'm not making any promises. I'd do it myself - with my bare hands."

"And I'm sure you'd manage to get away with it too," Steven sighed. 

Fallon's eyes filled with tears and she put a hand on his face. "I'm so sorry for what he made you go through. I swear to you, I _will_ make him suffer for it."

Steven hugged her, burying his face in her shoulder. He had missed her. The months he had spent in the asylum had been lonely and isolating. For a long time, he had been afraid that he would never be well enough to be with his family again. He had wasted too much time doubting himself.

"So it's true...you're really back." 

He looked up to see Sam standing in the doorway, wearing a very expensive looking designer suit. He was staring at him like he wasn't sure he was real.

"There you are," Fallon snapped at him. "Where the hell have you been?" 

"We've been trying to reach you," Steven said, awkwardly. Obviously he already knew that or they wouldn't be having this exchange. 

"Yeah, I finally got your messages." Sam walked over to stand in front of him. "I'm sorry I didn't see them earlier. I would have come right over."

"We were about to come looking for you at the hotel." Fallon gave her brother a concerned look. 

Sam barely heard her, his attention focused solely on Steven. "Are you ok?" he asked, a tearful expression on his face. They hadn't seen or spoken to each other since the day he'd checked into the hospital in Paris. It had been over a year, but standing together now, it felt like no time had passed at all. 

Steven nodded, smiling at him with tears in his eyes. "I'm ok...now that you're here."

Sam pulled him in for a hug, holding him in a comforting embrace. Steven rested his chin on his shoulder and closed his eyes, his heart aching at the familiarity of being in his arms. They had so much they needed to talk about, but for the moment all he wanted was to be with him. 

**

Upstairs in their old bedroom, the truth came tumbling out of Steven's mouth in a rush. He knew Adam was on his way to the house and he wanted Sam to be caught up before that happened. He was grateful that he would be by his side when he saw his brother again, but he was still anxious and scared. If Adam was evil enough to gaslight him and put him in a mental hospital, then he was capable of anything. 

"Wait, back up," Sam said, holding up his hand. "George was real and _Adam_ was George, so that means...you slept with your brother?!"

" _NO_ , he only wanted me to think that because he was trying to push me over the edge. I never cheated on you." Steven sat next to him on the side of the bed. When he thought of how close he had come to killing himself, he was apalled at Adam's lack of a conscience. He had stood by and watched his downward spiral, reveling in it instead of trying to help.

"I can't believe it," Sam said quietly. "Everything we went through was because of him. He tricked you, he drove you to a breakdown, and for what? What did he get out of destroying our marriage?"

"The only thing he cared about was getting revenge. He resented that I grew up here, with all of the money and being part of the Carrington family." 

"And we gave him that," Sam said, his anger rising. "He showed up here, wanting to live the good life and we welcomed him."

"You didn't know...and, to be honest, I can kind of see where he was coming from, not that it makes it any easier to forgive." Steven had been given plenty of time to think about it from all angles and a small part of him pitied his brother. He had been kidnapped as a baby - his life had been stolen from him. 

"There's no way in hell I'm ever forgiving him! Adam is crazy. He's the one who should have been locked up, not you."

Steven shook his head mournfully. "If only we could have switched places."

Sam put a hand on his face, looking at him sadly. "Listen...I am so, _so_ sorry. I should have known the minute he showed up here that something was wrong. I should have flown back to Paris and brought you home."

Steven smiled at him gently. "There's no point in doing 'what ifs.' It won't help. Trust me, I know."

"What _would_ help? Anything you want, just name it." Sam was sitting very close to him on the bed, still touching his face. 

"You're already doing it," Steven said. "Being here with you, finally having everything out in the open... _this_ is what I need."

Sam put an arm around his shoulder and leaned against him. Steven closed his eyes, grateful that after everything that had happened, they were still connected to each other. As much as Adam had tried to destroy everything in his life, there were some things he couldn't touch. 

**

"Don't fight me on this, I'm booking a spa day for you," Sam said, scrolling on his phone for the number. "You deserve a massage and a facial more than anyone on earth."

Steven laughed, then froze in place. They were halfway down the staircase before he noticed Adam standing in the foyer. 

Sam came to an abrupt halt behind him. "What? Why are you...oh, fuck no."

Adam glanced over at them and for a split second, there was a look of panic in his eyes. Then, just as quickly, it was gone, replaced by a mask of innocence. "Steven, I didn't know you were back from Paris! Welcome home."

Sam pushed past Steven, muttering "You sonofabitch" under his breath. In the blink of an eye, he was down the stairs, lunging at Adam.

"What's going on? I don't understand," Adam pleaded helplessly as he was grabbed by his shirt and thrown against the wall. 

"You know what you did!" Sam yelled in his face, still gripping his shirt. "You gaslighted him, you sick piece of shit."

Steven rushed over to intervene. As tempting as it was to want revenge, he knew violence wasn't the answer. "Sam, don't do this..."

"I think there's been a misunderstanding," Adam said, laughing nervously. "Maybe we should talk about this..."

Sam was only becoming angrier at him, the more he tried to feign innocence. The fact that he wouldn't even own up to what he'd done was appalling. "A misunderstanding?! I hope you don't misunderstand my fist in your face." 

Adam staggered as the first blow hit the left side of his face, but he managed to steady himself on the banister. "I've never met Steven before in my life," he said, wiping a smear of blood from his lip. "Don't listen to him, he's sick. You know me, Sam, we're friends."

Fallon and Cristal heard the chaos from the dining room and came rushing in.

"It looks like Sam's going to kill Adam," Cristal said, a note of disinterest in her voice.

"Hmm, too bad." Fallon took a sip from a glass of wine.

"There's no point denying it anymore," Steven warned his brother. "Just admit what you did and hopefully we can all move on."

"You need help," Adam said, his voice dripping with false sincerity. "I think you left the hospital too early. Clearly you're still delusional."

"Oh hell no!" Sam roared. He lunged for him again and Steven struggled to hold him back. "You don't get to do that to him anymore!"

"Do what?" Adam sneered. "Get him hooked on coke? He didn't need my help with that. He was already getting wasted again before he flew back to Paraguay." 

Steven glared at him. It was true that he'd done a bump on the flight out of the country. He wasn't proud of it, but at least Adam was finally saying something that was true. There were some parts of his downward spiral that he could only blame himself for. 

"You think he's some perfect angel?" Adam asked, goading Sam. "He was already a drugged up mess before I found him. I barely had to do anything."

Sam jerked his arm out of Steven's grasp, his fist swinging in the air. "I could fucking kill you for what you did to him," he yelled in his face, landing another hard punch. "You thought you could do that to my husband and get away with it?!"

Adam laughed, his nose and lip bloody. He was going to have a a large purple bruise around his eye. "I _did_ get away with it. I got everything I wanted...and none of you would have known if he'd stayed in Paris."

Anders hurried over and helped Steven pull Sam away. His knuckles were bleeding. They would have to find a first aid kit with some bandages to patch him up. 

"Let it go," Steven said, holding his hand and examining it with dismay. "He's not worth it."

He looked over at his brother regretfully. He had once hoped to find him and bring him home, imagining the close relationship they could have. Now he wished they had never met each other. Adam had only brought pain and suffering to his life. He couldn't even think of him as a brother, but rather an evil stranger that he had met along the way.


End file.
